Redesigning Your Website

A Checklist for Redesigning Your Website

Your digital marketing strategy starts with your
website, and it will be the most powerful tool of all for reaching out to your
potential and existing customers. You should regularly audit your website for
essential factors such as performance, ease of use and security to ensure that
it always meets industry standards and requirements while also offering your
visitors the best experience possible. As Web design trends come and go, the
best practices change on a yearly basis, and both the search engines and
consumers alike are constantly becoming more demanding. If you have decided
that it is time to redesign your website, this checklist will help you to make
the most out of this major undertaking.

1 - Audit Your Current Website

Some companies go over the top when redesigning
their websites, and as a result, they end up being counterproductive. You will
first need to determine which factors are holding your website back and whether
it even needs a redesign at all for that matter. Before you make the decision
to undertake this major job, study the analytics from your website as it stands
now to find out what's working and what isn't. Having an in-depth review of
your current website will allow you to establish your goals and estimate the
success of the new one.

2 - Determine Your Goals

The whole point of redesigning your website is
ultimately to solve a problem, or at least it should be. Based on the audit you
carried out of your old website, establish some core goals and key concepts for
shaping your redesign strategy. Perhaps your goals are to increase traffic by
improving your on-site search engine optimization, improve usability,
reliability or security or simply to increase traffic or conversion rates. Have
a clear outline of your goals before you start planning your website's
redesign.

3 - Ask Your Visitors

Asking your visitors for advice as soon as you
start thinking about redesigning your website will give you invaluable insights
into how to approach the matter. There's no need to pester your visitors for
their feedback either - just placing a poll on your website can be enough to
get some useful information on their preferences, and if you want to get even
more information, consider adding an optional survey for your visitors to
complete. Visitor feedback will allow you to identify your goals more clearly
and plan for success.

4 - Don't Neglect SEO

Search engine optimization is constantly
evolving, but many websites have actually been hit hard in recent years by
Google's algorithm updates which penalize over-optimized content. Redesigning
your website also gives you the perfect opportunity to do away with any
questionable SEO techniques you might have used before, such as excessive use
of keywords or over-optimized anchor text. When redesigning your website, keep
both your audience and the search engines (with an emphasis on the former) in
mind to ensure quality content and user-friendly interaction.

5 - Test Your Website

One of the most important things to consider
with modern Web design is compatibility across different platforms. With mobile
Internet browsing set to overtake desktop browsing in 2014, it is absolutely
essential that your website is mobile-friendly or that you have a separate
mobile version of it. In fact, optimization for mobile is one of the number one
reasons why companies redevelop their websites today. Be sure to test your new
website on all of the popular browsers as well as on mobile devices such as
tablet computers and smartphones.

6 - Promote Your New Website

Redesigning your website provides you with the
perfect excuse to get reconnected with your targeted audience, and after you
have gone to all this effort, you should use every digital marketing channel
available to you to raise awareness about your new website. Be sure to mention
it on your social media profiles as well as in your email newsletters, blog
posts and any other platforms you use. It is often a good idea to start promoting
your website's redesign before it is even complete, since this will give your
audience something to look forward to.

7 - Analyse Your Results

A complete redesign of your website can still
come with unexpected results, even if you take every possible step to give your
visitors what they want. There may be a crucial design flaw or something in
your marketing campaign which is holding you back, and because of this, it is
important to dedicate your business to continuous improvement. Continue to
analyse your efforts by tracking crucial Web marketing metrics, since there
will always be new ways in which you can improve your website and your digital
marketing approach.

Latest Articles

Selected Ceramics

When it comes to renovating, improving, or building your dream home, get the perfect finishing touches at Selected Ceramics Pty Ltd in Narellan. Our comprehensive floor, wall tile, mosaic tiles and natural stone selection cover all types and styles of tiles, and we also have a large range of materials for your tiling project.

Aquinas Catholic College

Aquinas Catholic College is our latest creation to be added to our profile. This website provides Aquinas Catholic College with everything they need to keep thier students, teachers and parents informed of what is happening within the school.

Content Management Systems

A content management system (CMS) is an environment that allows you to update, add and remove pages from within your website with ease. (CMS) is accessed on a secure part of your website and requires a username and password to logon.